Lyoko: XANA's endgame
by Sullyranger
Summary: set a few years after the final episode of Lyoko.  XANA returns in an unexpected way, causing the warriors to reactivate Lyoko and destroy him once and for all.  but what is his new monster 'META' capable of? and why does XANA have a copy of Odd?
1. Chapter 1

Monsters poured into the chamber at the heart of sector 5, Aelita, Yumi, Ulrich and Odd continued to keep them at bay while the bomb ticked away until it destroyed XANA once and for all. However, things were becoming increasingly worse as for every monster they killed another two would take its place, and Ulrich being devirtualized when he was blasted by a group of creepers didn't help matters either.

"Jeremy, we can't keep this up for much longer. If we lose anyone else I don't think we can hold these monsters back!" Aelita shouted as she fired another energy field, destroying a tarantula just as Yumi destroyed a block and Odd took out a pair of mega tanks. XANA was sending every monster he had to stop them from detonating an EMP bomb that would erase Lyoko and the evil program along with it. Jeremy typed away at the super computer and said it would be only a few more minutes as the elevator came to a stop and Ulrich walked over to watch the remaining warriors.

The three friends continued to fight, but Yumi was overwhelmed when a krab, creeper, and wasp teamed up on her. Odd watched as she was devirtualized before he jumped on top of the krab firing two laser arrows into the symbol on top of it and blasting the two remaining monsters as he jumped back to the floor. Aelita looked over at him as he continued to fight back the monsters while avoiding their attacks as well, he'd barely said two words to her since she confronted him earlier and now he was fighting like someone out of an action movie, never taking a single hit. However this particular observation cost her as a creeper hit her in the shoulder, Odd saw this and shot a single laser arrow that made its mar and destroyed the creeper as well as the one behind it.

"Jeremy, we can't hold out for much longer; I'll have to detonate the bomb manually!" Aelita yelled as she fired an energy field at a tarantula. "Begin materializing Odd and I'll set it off once he's out of the scann-ah!" Aelita was cut off by one of Odd's arrows devirtualizing her.

"Sorry Princess, but I'm not about to let you make the sacrifice this time." Odd said as he shot a few more monsters.

"Odd, what the hell are you doing" Ulrich asked from the supercomputer as the scanner holding Aelita opened.

"Sorry Ulrich ole buddy, but I'm not about to watch any of you die. Especially Aelita." Odd answered before pointing his arm at the bomb and firing three shots into it, causing it to go off. Aelita reached the supercomputer just in time to see the holo-map of Lyoko cut off.

"ODD!"

_***several weeks earlier***_

Two years after XANA's defeat, Aelita sat at a bench with Yumi waiting for Ulrich and Jeremy. Odd had left a few months after graduating to visit his family in the states and then ended up touring Europe with them for an extended leave. No one in the group had seen or heard from him in almost two years.

"Hey ladies, how are things going?" Ulrich called as he and Jeremy approached the bench, Ulrich and Yumi finally got their act together and started dating, they were nearly always together. Even though they all graduated from Kadic a year ago, they still enjoyed being on campus. It shocked everyone when Odd graduated early with Yumi's class, but they were proud of him regardless. Jeremy and Aelita tried dating, but the spark wasn't there like when XANA was attempting to kill them. Aelita missed Odd more than the others did, he was always easy to talk to and more than once he dropped whatever he was doing to help her with something.

Aelita had toned out what the others were saying as she wondered what Odd was up to. Had she been paying attention, she would have noticed a figure moving behind a nearby tree, a figure that was looking directly at her. She was snapped back to reality when her phone began rang, she pulled it out of her pocket and looked at the number which she did not recognize, and promptly ignored the call. A minute later Ulrich's phone began to ring as well. He fished it out and answered without looking; causing Yumi to roll her eyes and laugh silently.

"Hello? Huh? REALLY! Ok I'll tell the others! What? Ummm alright, but you're taking the heat for it when they get pissed." Ulrich hung up and stood there silently, the others waited in silence before Jeremy cleared his throat to get his attention. "What? Oh, sorry that was a family friend, he's coming to town for a bit and didn't want me to tell e parents so he can surprise them." Aelita and the other accepted this explanation and the four went back to their conversation. They laughed and joked about their time as the protectors of the planet before saying their good-byes and heading home.

Aelita however did not go directly to the apartment she and Yumi had been living in since she graduated from Kadic, she ran by the grocery store to pick up some milk and a few other item they needed. She had the gnawing feeling that she was being followed, every time she turned around there was someone turning down into a store or another street. She kept walking as the sun set and the street lights began to turn on. When Aelita was about three blocks from her apartment, someone grabbed her and pulled her down a side alley and thrust her against the cold brick wall. With a grunt she opened her eyes to find Herb holding her to the wall.

"Herb, what are you doing!" Aelita asked loudly.

"I'm doing what I've been wanting to do for years now." He responded as he moved his head closer to her neck. When Aelita realized what he was trying to do her eyes widened and she began to struggle to get free of Herb's grip, but he was stronger than she was. She managed to shove herself away from the wall; but Herb slammed her back into it, causing her to hit her head hard on the wall behind her. At this Aelita became concuss, everything was blurry and sounds were distorted. She was vaguely aware of Herb reaching up under her skirt when he was suddenly ripped from her, then a gentle pair of hands lowered her to the ground pulling her shirt back over her and a voice telling her not to move.

Herb looked up from the spot where he landed and found a fist flying at him. The punch sent him into the other wall, crushing his nose which began bleeding profusely. The person grabbed the back of his shirt and lifted him off the ground before shoving him face first into the wall, he could feel the person's breath near his ear and then a familiar voice said:

"Stay. Away. From her." He was about to respond when his head hit the wall again and he lost consciousness.

Aelita was fading in and out of consciousness, when the gentle hands returned. They lifted her carefully and a distorted voice said they'd called the police and the paramedics were on their way, by the feel of the stranger's hands she knew it was a man that had saved her. The paramedics arrived minutes later with the police in tow who immediately went to retrieve Herb, the last thing she could make out before the morphine knocked her out was the man who rescued her saying: "Hang in there Princess."


	2. Returns

Aelita awoke in a hospital bed; she looked around only to the nurse checking her medication. The last thing she remembered was being assaulted by Herve, then someone else rescuing her and calling the paramedics. Someone who called her 'Princess', there were only two people who called her Princess.

"Oh my, your awake already." The nurse said, then promptly left to get a doctor saying a quiet "excuse me" near the door. Aelita looked harder and noticed that someone was leaning against the walk in a darkened corner of the room, the person was definitely male with his arms crossed and one leg up on the wall. The moment he realized that she had seen him, he silently left the room without a word. Aelita tried to ask him to stop and who he was but her throat was too sore for her to talk, she took a sip of water from the tray next to her bed to alleviate the pain. A moment after she gulped the last of the water down, Yumi burst into the room followed by Ulrich and Jeremy.

"Relax Yumi, the nurse said she's fine and she'll be able to leave in a few hours." Ulrich said as Yumi bombarded Aelita with questions about the incident. Aelita cleared her throat before she told them what had happened, she slowed down as she got to the part where the ambulance arrived. "Hey Aelita looks like you're outta water, I'll go get you some more." Ulrich spurted out loudly as she was about to tell them about being called Princess. The others watched him leave in a rush then glanced at the pitcher of water sitting on the bedside table.

Ulrich made his way down the hall to the farthest water fountain he could find on the wing. He finally stopped at one and began to fill the glass he had snatched off his friend's tray. A figure sat in the poorly lit waiting area, Ulrich filled the glass then sat down across from the person, "She was looking at me as if she thought I had saved her." He said to the man, "What did you do?"

"I may have called her 'Princess'." Came the reply. Ulrich shook his head and sighed heavily, "Don't worry, you're part in this will be finished soon." The figure said, he knew Ulrich hated lying to his friends. "However," he said "you do not have to take credit for this action, you were with Yumi at the time this occurred and they would be onto you." Ulrich nodded and stood up to head back to Aelita's room.

"You stayed in there until she woke up didn't you?" The German boy asked, looking over his shoulder at the figure who nodded. "You should just tell them, they won't hate you. They might get upset, but they couldn't hate you Odd." And with that he left to rejoin their friends.

Odd Della Robbia leaned forward and placed his chin on his folded hands to consider what his best friend had said, it had been almost two years since he graduated Kadic and left to join his parents. He had kept in touch until he dropped his phone in the ocean on a boating trip in Ireland, he only just got a new one when they arrived in France and he decided to stay with his friends while his folks finished touring the world. His mother schooled him while on the go, but he had missed his friends terribly. The others had told him that they were all going to stay in town for high school, so he figured he could just transfer to their school when he arrived. He tried to call Aelita first to tell him he was coming back, but she didn't recognize his new number so she ignore his call. Luckily, Ulrich always answered his phone; even if XANA was calling to ask him to tea.

The svelte man stood and made his way to Aelita's room, but stopped when he heard the doctor's voice coming from inside. "I'm sorry miss, but I would like to keep you here overnight just for observation. I'll have to ask the rest of you to leave, visiting hours are about to end and only family is allowed to stay afterhours." Odd stepped back around the corner and waited for his Jeremy, Yumi and Ulrich to walk out of the room. Luckily Ulrich left last and looked over where Odd had stuck his head out and nodded to let him know that he would stay, with a smile Ulrich caught up to his friends and pull his arm around Yumi comfortingly.

Odd slowly walked to the room where Aelita was no doubt asking the doctor about all the equipment in the room, learning never stopped for her. When he reached the room however, he found her sound asleep with a nurse replacing a bag full of what he guessed was a pain killer. "I'm sorry young man, but visiting hours are over. Only kin are allowed to stay with patients now." The nurse said politely upon seeing him.

"It's ok, I'm her cousin; Odd Della Robbia." He responded with a small smile, the nurse walked over t the end of Aelita's bed and picked up her charts to look for her list of relatives. She smiled after finding his name, then the smile became a frown as she saw he was listed as 'next of kin'.

"Well this can't be right, you're down as her next of kin. That should be for parents or siblings."

"Oh, her parents passed when she was younger. She moved in with my family in the states, and then accompanied me to attend Kadic. I stayed here when she was accepted to a local high school so she would still have family nearby in case something like this happened." Odd said with a hasty story.

The nurse was touched by his tale, and motioned him to a chair near Aelita's bed. "I just gave her a sedative, so she'll be asleep for the rest of the evening. I'll bring you a blanket and you can get some sleep as well dear." Odd thanked her as she left before taking a sit next to the pink haired girl, who was breathing calmly.

"I'll be here when you wake up Princess."

Aelita watched her friends leave ad then the nurse told her that she was going to give her something to help her sleep. Aelita watched the older woman take a needle and inject it into her IV. The last thing she heard was the nurse beginning to talk to someone at the door.

The next thing she knew, Aelita was floating in a large empty room. It looked similar to sector 5 but seemed to go on forever, she looked around before noticing that she was in her Lyoko form. She had dreamed of being on Lyoko with her friends before, but never like this.

_Ah, so at last you here_. A heavily synthesized voice said. _I have waited a long time for this day. _Aelita turned around and saw the Eye of XANA, it was large and red as well as the source of the robotic voice. _I have been here attempting to contact you for some time now Guardian, however your dreams would drown me out. But now there is no dream, and I am able to use you._

"XANA! This must be a dream, you were destroyed over two years ago!" Aelita shouted at the giant symbol of evil.

_I always suspected that you and you're companions would find a way to delete my original program. So I created a program capable of removing and implanting data. I used this program to place a back up of myself inside of you. In case I was deleted, this copy of my data would be activated by a signal from a strand of code I added to myself._

Aelita looked at the Eye in horror; this had to be a dream, or a very bad nightmare. How was XANA supposed to find a way into a computer if he was inside of her?

_I will now be able to leave you in the form of a specter and find a computer capable of sustaining me. But before I allow you to leave this realm that I have created in your mind, I wish to show you what I have created while trying to make contact in order to escape._

Then a wire frame figure appeared between the Eye and Aelita, it had human form. Bits starting flying from all directions, giving the wire frame a body; they started at the feet and moved up. When the figure was finished it wasn't human, but it did have the form of one. The new monster was made up of armor similar to the one William wore while possessed, only with areas of brown attached to the dark purple, and a domed helmet that was mainly a silver visor (for a better idea of what it looks like, check out the EVA helmet on Halo 3 or Reach) adorned with a red Eye of XANA on it. Then an axe with a large round hilt formed next to it. The monster growled before taking the axe and pointing the bottom of the hilt at Aelita, with then fired a dark orb at her; missing by mere inches.

_My most powerful creation ever, it has no weakness. Even my last program before this one could not stand long against this single creation. Now it is time to test it's power, force her out._

The Eye vanished and a large round platform appeared beneath them. As soon as they touched down the monster charged, Aelita rolled out of the way and fired an energy field at it which was smacked away effortlessly by the new monster. Then it growled in a manner that sounded almost like it was laughing, before firing its own energy orb. Aelita moved out of the way but was blasted to the edge of the platform, it turns out that its dark orbs were actually energy grenades.

As the monster approached with the blade of the axe held up ready to strike, Aelita let out a yell. "Ulrich, Yumi, Odd! Help me!"

Odd stood up quickly after thinking he heard Aelita call for help, but he found her still sleeping in her bed. He let out a sigh of relief then went to sit back down, but he fell through the chair and found himself in what looked like a hollow sector 5. He was in his Lyoko form and was standing on the overboard, then he heard an explosion and looked down. Aelita was on a large platform battling someone with XANA's mark, which was all it took before he sprung into action.

He dove the overboard down towards the platform, the monster was about to bring his weapon down on Aelita when it noticed him barreling at him. It cocked its head to the left before it realized what was about to happen, but it was too late. Odd jumped off his board which rammed right into the monster, sending it to the other side of the platform.

"You ok Princess?" Odd asked as he helped her up. Aelita, who believe him to be conjured up by her mind nodded; Odd then turned his attention back to the opponent who was getting up. Odd fired his laser arrows at the creature, several of which hit it's Eye of XANA, but it just took a defensive stance as the arrows hit it. "This could be bad." Odd said when he realized that the Eye wasn't its weak point, just as the monster charged. Odd did a front flip over it's head, firing a few arrows hoping to at least hurt it. When one hit it in the back of the head, Odd noticed that static was jumping around his armor, he smiled and saw his overboard had not been destroyed from the kamikaze run. He jumped on and flew over to Aelita who jumped on without a word.

The pair few high and bombarded the monster with their respectful attacks. This had about as much effect as their other attempts to destroy it however. Then Odd had an idea, "Hold on Aelita, I'm about to try something." Aelita did as instructed and they flew right at the monster, Odd firing in order to make it back up to the edge behind it. The monster got wise to Odd's plan and returned fire, many grenades hit laser arrows which caused them to explode in the air, when one exploded in front of the creature it was momentarily blinded and cost it as the overboard rammed it again. This time sending it flying off the platform to what seemed like an endless fall.

"Thanks Odd, I don't what would've happened had you not shown up." Aelita said, still believing he was just her memory of him brought forth by her mind as a defensive strategy.

"No problem Princes, when have I ever been there when my friends really needed me?" Odd answered her, also believing none of what just happened was real. "Now can you tell me how we get out of here?" then the two faded away.

Once they were gone the Eye of XANA reappeared and the monster floated up unscathed, _Did you get it?_ The Eye asked. The program growled in affirmative as another wireframe appeared a copy of Odd formed. Purple with red stripes and the Eye of XANA on his chest instead of a picture of Kiwi.

He looked at the Eye before him and spoke, "How may I serve you lord XANA?"


End file.
